LG GGC-H20L Super Multi Blu-ray & HD DVD-ROM

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Author

MegaDETH
Senior Moderator and Senior Reviewer
Article posted 18 Feb 08 00:26

Conclusion

Positive:

  • Reads BD-ROM SL and DL media at 4.8x
  • Reads BD-R at 6x and BD-RE media at 2x
  • Reads HD DVD-ROM SL and DL media at 3x
  • Writes both DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x
  • Allows 12x writing on 16x DVD media
  • Writes CD-R media at 40x
  • Has Lightscribe support
  • Very fast audio extraction
  • Quiet drive operation
  • Writes DVD-RW media at 8x
  • Supports 5x writing on DVD-RAM
  • Very Good to Excellent DVD and CD-R writing quality
  • Solid construction with SATA interface
  • Full featured Software Bundle from CyberLink
  • Relatively inexpensive for a Blu-ray and HD DVD drive


Negative:

  • Does not allow Bitsetting of DVD+RW media.

Conclusion:

 

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The LG GGC-H20L’s ability to read High-Definition movies both in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats make this drive a must have for any desktop PC or Home Theater PC (HTPC).

Writing of DVD-R and DVD+R media with the LG GGC-H20L at 16x with very good writing quality gives this unit the ability to be a single drive solution for Blu-ray and HD DVD playback as well as a CD and DVD burner. 

Writing of CD-R/RW media, 40x and 24x respectively is more than an added bonus, the LG GGC-H20L is also a very fast CD-R/RW reader; in addition the drive sports excellent audio extraction results.

The drive supports SATA interface for quick and easy installation (SATA cable included in the box) and with  a software bundle from Cyberlink for Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD playback, DVD and CD burning and authoring, really making the LG GGC-H20L a multi format drive solution.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: “The LG GGC-H20L is a Blu-ray Disc & HD DVD reader giving you the ability to watch high-definition content on your PC, additionally its capability to write DVD and CD-R media with excellent quality establishing this drive as an All-In-One solution.” We therefore award the LG GGC-H20L the CDFreaks’ Safe Buy Award.

We found the retail version of LG GGC-H20L is listed at cheapest price of $229.99 at www.newegg.com (February 2008).

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread.


Thanks to:

Maxell USA – For providing the media used in this review.

Memorex USA – For providing the media used in this review.

Rima.com USA – For providing Taiyo Yuden media used in this review.

Advanced Media/Ritek-USA – For providing the media used in this review.

Verbatim USA – For providing the media used in this review.

ExtremeMhz   – For providing the Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media used in this review

 

 

7 Comments

SciFer
Posts: 249
Posted on: 20 Feb 08 21:24
Just would like to confirm, this model won't write or read blu-ray recordables with the new organic dye this article is talking about, right? http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/Blu-ray-discs-get-cheaper-due-new-organic-dye-announcement.html
MegaDETH
Posts: 4873
Posted on: 26 Feb 08 20:43
It will not write to any Blu-ray or HD discs, it is a Read Only for Blu-ray or HD-DVD
partyman
Posts: 6
Posted on: 21 Apr 08 04:33
Hi. I'm a newbie to Bd/Hd before i buy the reader(Lg GGC-H20L0) will it be able to read the new organic dye disc coming out. :g
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 01 May 08 05:41
I have owned my LG Super Multi Combo Drive (model GGC-H20L) for 6 weeks now and it suddenly stopped working... I can't get the drive to show up at all -- it causes the P.O.S.T. to take about 120 seconds or better to scan the IDE/SATA channels and never finds it... Windows XP can't see it either any more... Can anyone help me?
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 14 May 08 05:18
In reality, is there any point to more than 1.5x transfer speed on BD-ROM at present? The only media out there at the moment in BD-ROM format is BD movies and they only require a 1.5x speed player/ROM. Testing the read speed on BD movies at faster than 1.5x is really a synthetic test only since the movies will only be read at 1.5x. It may be years before games or apps ever come out on BD-ROM and it's not really economically viable for most of us to get a BD Burner yet. BD-R media can be read at the higher speeds.
master64nl
Posts: 14
Posted on: 11 Aug 08 09:13
Now you have the same model number that can write BD also. Is this only a matter of flashing software?
jlbpasty
Posts: 1
Posted on: 09 Sep 09 20:23
my GGCH20L with packaged cyberlink only plays for about 30secs after the pre-trailers have finished and then black screen, sound still comes through but no picture take disc out and pc fine
is it an HDCP problem tried downloading patch from cyberlink but no joy

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